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The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., stepped into the void left by the Legislature when he agreed l to pay for Governor Cuomo’s prison education plan with more than $7 million in criminal forfeiture money secured from banks. Lauding what he described as a public safety measure, Mr. Vance said, “It makes no sense to send someone to prison with no pathway for them to succeed.”

“I applaud Governor Cuomo’s swift response to the events in Charlottesville by announcing legislation today to add rioting or inciting a riot to New York’s Hate Crime statute. Domestic terrorism perpetrated by white supremacists and neo-Nazis has no place in this city, and will be prosecuted by this office.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the dismissal of 240,472 summonses ten years or older, eliminating the collateral consequences of years-old summons warrants for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and enabling them to collaborate more fully in their communities without fear of arrest. District Attorney Vance personally moved to vacate the summons warrants in Manhattan Criminal Court before Supervising Judge Tamiko Amaker, before moving to dismiss the 240,472 summonses themselves. In total, approximately 644,500 summons cases were dismissed simultaneously in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. today announced the award of $7.3 million to fund educational programming and reentry services at 17 New York State prisons over the next five years. The College-in-Prison Reentry Program is being funded through the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Justice Investment Initiative. It will create more than 2,500 seats for college-level education and training for incarcerated New Yorkers across the state. This program will significantly increase the likelihood of successful reentry into the community thereby reducing recidivism rates.

New York County District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark, Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, and Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that nearly 700,000 summons warrants that are 10 years or older will be vacated in the next few weeks. The warrants in question were issued for failure to pay a ticket for a minor infraction, subjecting individuals to arrest as well as carrying other negative consequences.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the guilty pleas of an antiques store and its owners for selling and offering for sale illegal elephant ivory at a total price of more than $4.5 million.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced new justice reform initiatives that will end the criminal prosecution of approximately 20,000 low-level offenses annually. Beginning in September 2017, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office will no longer prosecute the overwhelming majority of individuals charged with Theft of Services for subway-related offenses, unless there is a demonstrated public safety reason to do so.

New York County District Attorney Cy Vance in an interview aired Sunday blasted a GOP plan that would allow qualified owners to carry concealed handguns in other states that allow individuals to carry concealed firearms.

Speaking to radio host John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York, Vance argued that the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act introduced earlier this year would only put New York City at risk of violence.

"If that bill passes, I believe the safety, and the greater safety we have achieved will be at risk," he said.

Cy Vance, the normally under-stated Manhattan district attorney, repeatedly criticized President Donald Trump during a Wednesday address, accusing the president of undermining the fight against terrorism with rhetoric and proposals that alienate allies and immigrants.

Vance also flipped a recent presidential tweet on its head, after Trump suggested that there was no need to debate gun-control laws anymore because the recent terrorist attack in London was carried out with “knives and a truck.”